Lizzie McGuire: Hillridge Senior High School

It was the first day of high school for a score of freshmen students at Hillridge Senior High School. Some students were clustered in tight-knit groups by the doors, glancing tentatively around, being careful not to make eye contact with anyone bigger than them. Some were looking in vain for their lockers, while bolder students asked sophomores and juniors where they could find a certain teacher's room. Others were in the bathrooms, hiding out until it was time for homeroom. Others still were tripping on the school steps, as they attempted to make a good first appearance.

"Great," Lizzie McGuire muttered as she picked herself up off the floor. She brushed off her skirt and shook her foot to fix her sandal. "Now my reputation as a ditz has been cemented for high school as well. Wonder how I'll mess up college."

"Oh, come on, Lizzie," loyal, reliable David "Gordo" Gordon said as he collected her scattered belongings. "I'm sure no one saw you. They probably weren't even watching." Lizzie pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. Gordo had been about to hand her books back to her, but held onto them instead.

"Why wouldn't anyone be watching me? You think I'm not good enough to be gazed at from afar?"

Gordo began to backpedal quickly. "No, well, I mean, of course, I just meant—"

"Oh look, Gordork and Loozie."

"Kate, didn't that get a little old, like, in seventh grade?" Gordo wanted to know.

Kate ignored him. Instead she stared at the books he was holding. Noting the neon pink and purple notebooks, she asked him, "What are you, Loozie's personal slave or something? Or are those your matching Hello Kitty pencils?"

Lizzie ripped her belongings out of Gordo's arms and snarled, "Kate, I don't know why you don't like Gordo and I, and I don't really care. It doesn't matter to me whether or not we get along anymore. What I ask, though, is that you leave us alone, because you're wasting both your time and mine." She turned to Gordo. "Come on," she growled, tugging on his arm. "We're going. Miranda will just have to meet us in homeroom."

Gordo threw one last angry look at Kate over his shoulder as Lizzie stormed away with him in tow. He caught a glimpse of Kate holding to fingers up in the shape of a "L" on her forehead before the crowds swallowed him up, cutting him off from Lizzie, and he was alone in the sea of students.

Wonderful, Gordo thought to himself, straining his neck to try and see above the teaming masses. Why couldn't I have had a growth spurt this summer?

Lizzie slid into her seat as the final bell rang. Her first day in High School! Awesome! Her teacher began to explain the basics of their schedules, and class expectations, and other things. He gave the average grade percentages, explained about passing time, and lunch, and bathroom passes.

It was only when he mentioned to the older students that they should try to help out the freshmen as best they could that Lizzie noticed that there were in fact older students in the classroom. She turned and noticed a boy with shaggy light brown hair and sparkly brown eyes looking at her. She gave him a small smile and turned quickly back to the front of the room. No way! She'd only been in high school for twenty minutes and already a guy had noticed her This was sure to be a rockin' freshman year.

The bell rang signaling the end of homeroom, and Lizzie gathered up her things and made towards the door. As she passed through the doorway she felt someone touch her shoulder. She turned around and saw her blue-eyed-shaggy-haired guy from a few minutes before.

"Catch ya later," he said quietly, twirling a piece of her hair around his finger and smiling at her.

Lizzie giggled. "Totally," she burbled, her face alight with childlike glee.

'Catch Ya Later' nodded and walked down the hallway a ways before turning left and disappearing.

Lizzie felt as if her head was wrapped in a light, fluffy, pillowy cloud. She didn't even notice Gordo appear at her shoulder.

"What?" she said distantly, turning around to face him.

"I said who was that," Gordo repeated.

"Who was who?" Lizzie asked, trying to shake the remaining clouds out of her ears.

"That guy you were talking to."

"Oh." Lizzie shook her head again. "Oh!" Her eyes finally lit upon Gordo and the last of the clouds melted away. "Oh, Gordo, he's the awesomest guy ever! He was smiling at me in homeroom and then, as we were leaving, he said, 'Catch ya later.' Isn't that just amazing?"

"Astounding," Gordo grumbled. He didn't sound interested. In fact, he sounded like he wished he hadn't asked at all. "What class do you have next?"

"Math," Lizzie said, dreamily again, as if merely talking about him was enough to drop her back in her cloudy world. "Or maybe…science, it might be. English class, possibly…"

Gordo snatched her schedule out of the lose grip of her fingers, and held it up to his face. "Math," he confirmed for her. "You have math. Room 214. You'd better go, you'll be late for class…Lizzie?"

"I'll see you later, Gordo," Lizzie sighed vaguely, "I have to go to math class. I don't want to be late." And with that she wandered away, meandering down the hallway as though she hadn't the fainted care where she was going.

Gordo wondered briefly if he would ever see her again.